Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1887-10-22
Conversation.

stand conversation to De tdlki not
the exchange of ideas, but Of words;
and the Drawer would not like to say
anything to increase the flow of the lat
ter. We read of times and salons in
which real conversation existed, held
by men and women. Are they alto
gether in the past? We believe that
men do sometimes converse. Do wo-
men ever? Perhaps so. In those hours
sacred to the relaxation of undress and
the back hair, in the upper penetralia
of the household, where two or three or
six are gathered together on and about
the cushioned frame intended for re-
pose, do they converse, or indulge in
that sort of chat from which not one
idea is carried away? No one reports,
fortunately, and we do not know. But
do all the women like this method of
spending hour after hour, day after
day-indeed, a lifetime? Is it in
vigorating, even restful? Think of the
talk this past summer, the rivers and
oceans of it, on piazzas and galleries in
the warm evenings or the fresher
mornings, in private houses, on hotel
cottages by the sea and in the hills! As
you recall it, what was it all about?
Was the mind in a vapid condition af-
ter an evening of it? And there is so
much TO read, and so much to think
about, and the world is so interesting.
if you do think about it. and nearly
every person has some popularity of
mind that would be worth study if you
could only get at it! 1t is really, we
repeat, such an interesting world, and
most people get so little out of it. Now
there is the conversation of hens. when
the hens are busy and not self-con-
scious; there is something fascinating
about it, because the Imagination may
invest it with a reconcile and SPICY
meaning; but the common talk of peo-
pie! We infer sometimes that the hens
are not saying anything, because they
do not read. and consequently their
minds are empty. And perhaps we
are right. As to conversation. there
is no use in sending the bucket into the
well when the well is dry-it only
makes rafting of windlass and chain.
The Drawer does not wish to be I'M
derstood as an enemy of the light
traffic of human speech. Deliver us
from the didaclic and everlastingly i'm
proved style of thing! Conversation in
order to be good. intellectually inspir-
ing. and spiritually restful, need not
always be serious. 1t must be alert
and intelligent. and mean more by its
suggestions and illusions than is said
There is the light touch-and-go play
about topics more or less profound
that is as agreeable as heat lightning
in sultry evening. Why MAJ not
| person express the whims and vagaries
of lam5en mind Gf he can get lam
bent mind) without being hauled up
short for it, and plunged into heated
|
versation the mind throws out half
/ thoughts. paradoxes, for which a man
is not to be held strictly responsible to
the very roots of his being, and which
need to be caught up and played with
1 in the same tentative spirit The dis
pute and the hot argument are usually
/ the bane of conversation and the death
of originality. We like to express
notion, fancy, without being called
upon to defend it, then and there, in
all It's poss bic consequences. as if it
were an article in a creed or plank in
a platform. Must we be always either
vapid or serious?
The Drawer has been obliged to take
notice of the extraordinary tendency
of American women to cultiva-
ton, to the Improvement of the
mind. by means of reading, clubs,
and other intellectual exercises,
and to acknowledge that they are leav-
ing the men behind; that is, the men
not in the so-called professions. Is
this NATURALIZATION beginning to
show in the conversation of women
when they are together, say in the
hours of relaxation in the penetralia
spoken of, or in general society? Is
there less talk about the fashion of
dress, and the dearness or cheapness of
materials. and about servants. and the
ways of the inchoate citizen called the
baby, and the infinitely little details of
the private life of other people? Is it
true that if group of men are talking.
say about politics, or robust business,
or literature, and they are joined by
woman (whose company is always well
Gomez. the conversation is pretty sure
to take lower mental plane, to be-
come more personal more frivolous,
accommodating itself to quite differ
ent range? Do the well read. thoughtful
women, however beautiful and brilliant
and capable of the gayest persifage,
prefer to talk with men, to listen to the
conversation of men. rather than to
converse with or listen to their own
sex? If this is true. why is it? Women,
as rule. in society" at any rate.
have more leisuare than men. In the
facilities and felicities of speech they